


Skeleton City

by foliearyden



Category: Panic! at the Disco
Genre: Future, Gen, Last Man Standing, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-20
Updated: 2014-08-20
Packaged: 2018-02-14 01:04:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2172048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foliearyden/pseuds/foliearyden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ryan and Jac were the last humans alive until Jac killed herself, leaving Ryan as the last man standing.  The thing is that Ryan can't find it in himself to hold it against her, because really, he wishes that he had done it first.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Skeleton City

**2045\.  Sometime in spring.**

Ryan looked over the edge of the building. The city expanded for miles around him, fingers of white steel and glimmering mirrors pointing to the heavens. A tragic skeleton of a once powerful empire.

It had been two weeks since Jac died. He found her limp body pressed against the pavement in front of one of the ghostly abandoned buildings, brains painting the automatic door behind her in long, messy red streaks. Even in death she was an artist, adding a blemish of color to their stark scenery.

They used to dream about finding others in the city and spent their days searching and screaming and laughing their way through the eerily pristine ruins of the city. They never did find anyone, but Jac said she didn’t mind that they were alone, so Ryan didn't either.  They had each other and that was enough.  

When she was died, he tried to not let it bother him, but the silence infallibly followed him everywhere he went. The inside of every building was just as still and white as the rest; never the soft thrumming of voices he hoped for.

Ryan's throat itched with the words he wanted to say but did not. If a tree falls in a forest with no one around to hear it, does it make a sound? Ryan didn't like the idea of his words not existing now that Jac wasn’t there to hear them. He didn't much like the silence, either.

When it felt like the silence and seeped into his very bones, he threw things. They clattered and smashed when they hit the walls.  Ryan's eyes would begin to sting at the loud, meaningless echos that passed quicker than they came.

His school books used to say that in the old days, before the New Cities were built, people would go insane if they were alone for too long. They never specified what 'insane' meant, but it was understood that it was not good. Sometimes they would hear things, these people that went insane. Voices. Noises. Ryan didn't know exactly what the books meant when they said that, but he had always imagined people popping into existence and talking to him. Before it sounded ridiculous. Now, he couldn't think of anything that sounded better.

Ryan had tried to keep going, still clutching to the idea that there had to be someone else out there, somewhere. Searching for him and Jac, and just as lonely and tired as they felt.

Now, after two weeks of solitude, reality had sunk in. He really was the last boy alive.

Ryan walker closer to the edge of the building.  The pavement stretched out beneath him in a tiny strip. He sat down, his cowboy boots dangling over the edge and contemplating how quickly a fall from this height would kill him.

Jac wouldn't have wanted this. She always said that Ryan was the best thing to ever happen to the world. Then again, he never really had any competition. And Jac had left him all alone. When she was alive she had smiles and conversations and she had Ryan. She never really understood what silence meant or what it was to be truly alone, and she still put the bullet to her brain.

It was smart of her. Selfish and smart, ending her life while there were still things that made it worth living. Dying knowing that there would be someone left to miss her. Ryan couldn't find it in him to hold it against her, because really, he wished that he had thought of it first.

Ryan looked up and ahead out at the white pillars spanning around him and wanted to scream.   Would the city exist when he was dead and there was no one left to see it?  Ryan hoped not.

Ryan stood up, feeling ruthless and tired, and just went for it.

He jumped.

For the first time since Jac died, Ryan laughed.  Happy and dizzy and totally helpless. The image of a boy reflected on the windows whipping past him, relief and tears plain in his eyes.

It made him feel a little less alone about dying this way.  Like an old friend was seeing him off.

It couldn’t have been more than halfway  -ten, maybe twenty floors down- when through one of the unlatched windows of the building, a phone rang out strong and clear.

Another person alive.

Suddenly, Ryan was hurtling towards his death  The boy in front of him stared back with a frightened hatred and the cold pavement no longer looked understanding and welcoming. It looked cold and hard and-

Ryan left the world in a mess of noise and pain.

Someone, somewhere, on the other line of the phone cursed and cried at the answering machine.


End file.
